


The Closest Thing

by SereneSorrow



Category: Bleach
Genre: Crush at First Sight, First Crush, Gen, UraIchi Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24411070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: A moment in time, and in the dark, on the grounds of the Shiba Clan's estate.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo & Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 5
Kudos: 83
Collections: UraIchi Week 2020





	The Closest Thing

**Author's Note:**

> UraIchi Week 2020 – Day 3: Different First Meetings
> 
> This is a thought I had when I wasn't sure I'd get any of The Noblest of Intentions ready to post.

Kisuke ignored the drone of cicadas in the trees all around him as he crouched on a high tree branch outside the main house of the Shiba Clan. He could not see into the building, the room had no windows here along this wall, but he could feel Yoruichi-sama's reiryoku and knew that she was both within the room and not in distress.

His princess was enjoying a late evening of simple pleasure, drinking sake with her friends Shiba Kukaku and Shiba Kaien. The two, heir to the Shiba Clan and his sister, were far more appropriate companions for her than he. The Rukongai orphan Yoruichi-sama had graciously taken in despite her elders objections was more suited to guarding her noble presence from afar than being given a place at her side.

Which brought him to his current mission, escorting and guarding the Shihoin princess during this visit. Kisuke was used to remaining still for hours as he did so regularly during missions, and silence was an easy state to fall into. He would be ready, should anything occur, to notice and react.

React he did, indeed by reflex when he had a knife out and ready even as he turned on his perch and readied himself to throw the blade at the target he suddenly sensed approaching his hiding place. Kisuke was shocked when suddenly the knife was knocked from his hand before he even had time to flick his wrist and release it. Blinking in realization as the circumstances around him became apparent, Kisuke watched as the small red ball bounced off of several tree branches and trunks after rebounding from his knife hand. The toy thumped to the ground and rolled back to the feet of the boy who had thrown it, and the source of the abnormally high reiryoku that Kisuke had responded to as a threat.

_'Ah, that's right, the Shiba often possess higher than average reiryoku reserves.'_ Kisuke thought to himself as he stared down at the younger boy who was glaring back at him from the ground.

The boy, with brightly colored orange hair that Kisuke couldn't miss among the greenery, picked up the ball and straightened again with an unimpressed look over Kisuke where he remained still in the darkness. Feeling a bit bemused by the appraisal from a boy that must have been at least fifty years younger than himself, so probably about a century old, Kisuke was unprepared to catch the ball that suddenly flew back toward him. Fumbling to catch it, he stared from the ball to the boy who had thrown it, a bit embarrassed as well as unsure what to do.

“Throw it back.” The boy said in an exasperated tone.

Kisuke did so, unsure of why, and then had to catch it again when the boy threw it back once again. Somehow, he hadn't expected to be found playing a game of catch in the dark with one of the Shiba Clan's children when Yoruichi-sama and her companions decided to take in a bit of fresh air.

The sound of Yoruichi-sama's drunken laughter succeeded in making him fall out of the tree, and he shuffled forward awkwardly, to the trio's teasing. While he endured Yoruichi-sama's jokes at his expense the boy, Shiba Ichigo he was named, was scolded by his cousins for being out past his bedtime. Kisuke endured the teasing with as much dignity as he could muster, even when it came in the form of side glances from the Shiba siblings, and froze in shock when Shiba Ichigo hugged him before scampering off to his bed at his cousins insistence.

Apparently the look on his face was enough to leave all three of the drunk clan leader's children breathless with laughter.

***

Ichigo grumbled to himself as he snuck back into his own room and went to bed, frustrated that his cousins had caught him. He hadn't meant to stick so close to the house itself when people were awake but the stranger in the tree had been really interesting, and funny, he'd looked really surprised every time Ichigo threw the ball to him. Giggling at the memory of the look on Kisuke's face, because that's what the purple haired lady had called him, Ichigo stared at the ceiling. Before he fell asleep he decided that he liked Kisuke, in a way that made his whole body feel light and made his cheeks feel warm, he hoped that he'd get to play with the older boy again sometime because he seemed more interesting than just about anyone Ichigo had ever met before.

**Author's Note:**

> So two things about the story... I was going to have tiny Karin and Yuzu cowering behind little Ichigo when Kisuke almost throws a knife at them, but that wouldn't work because the idea of the story was that little kid Ichigo gets a crush the first time he meets teenage assassin Kisuke and 1) I would have needed to find a way to make Karin and Yuzu leave the scene so that Ichigo's attention would be focused on Kisuke, and 2) no way Ichigo would like Kisuke if Kisuke literally (though accidentally) just threatened to kill his sisters...
> 
> Also, I have no idea why the title is the title... it was just what I named the file on my computer... I guess I was thinking, 'alternate first meetings=close but not the same' ... maybe? :D


End file.
